In the end, Ernie had no choice but to accept my story that the upstairs closet had been open and in a freak turn of events, a mannequin head had rolled down from the top of the pile, banked off the wall, and rocketed down the stairs to peg Ray Watson at just the right moment. It was a far stretch for sure but was the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment.
When he came to, Ray not only corroborated my story but confessed to killing Hudson after being turned down for a second mortgage on his house. He'd needed his son to get a scholarship, and the only way was for Tony to play in the game. Since Hudson had been reinstated as head coach, something not even Neena had known, he’d stuck tight to the rules. Tony’s science grade dipped, and Hudson had to bench him.
With Hudson out of the way, a crisp hundred dollar bill to the interim coach secured Tony’s place on the pitching mound for the pivotal game. Another got him a post-game makeup test, and as far as Ray was concerned, he’d done his best by his son.
I took no lasting damage from my encounter with a mad man, and after Ernie slapped the cuffs on Ray, Hudson made me renew my promise to watch out for Neena before he said his final goodbye. I watched him go into the light with mixed emotions, and sincerely hoped he would be my one and only ghostly encounter.
Grammie Dupree, in all her wisdom, had a saying about wishes and horses, though, and she hadn’t been wrong yet.
EPILOGUE
Thursday morning, I swung through the office door feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day until I got a look at Robin’s normally bland face. Was that an actual expression she was wearing?
“You’ve got a problem,” she informed me without preamble.
Steeling myself, I waited for her to elaborate, and when she didn’t, I resorting to asking her to explain.
“They moved up the closing date for 27 Front Street, and Spencer’s not answering his phone. You’re going to have to take the paperwork over and stay for the signing.
Oh no, I would not.
“You know I can’t do that, I’m not licensed. Shoot the info to my email, and I’ll see what I can do about rescheduling. Does this kind of thing happen a lot?” Given how lax my new employer was about my hours, I wondered about job stability. Well, that and he’d asked me to tell one of the more difficult cases that he had funding in place when underwriting had not verified 100%. I wasn’t too happy to lie to an applicant when he’d been stringing her along for months already even if he was certain he could get the deal through. It didn’t seem fair.
“Never. Spence wouldn’t miss a signing, and he’d been pulling in favors to get this one done early, but it didn’t look like it was going to happen.”
I wanted to ask why she hadn’t made the calls herself, but then I was the assistant and she was mostly part of the decor, so I handled the situation the best I could. Spencer still hadn’t shown up by the time I was done, and he didn’t call or answer his phone as I readied myself to leave an hour later with my emails caught up for the morning.
Just before I shut off my computer, someone from Patrea Heard’s office called and asked me to come in on Monday, but refused to give me any more information.
It looked like week two post-life apocalypse might also be starting out with a bang.
Can’t wait to find out what happens to Everly next?
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Also by ReGina Welling and Erin Lynn
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